Allgemeine Theorie der schönen Künste in einzeln, nach alphabetischer Ordnung der Kunstwörter auf einander folgenden, Artikeln abgehandelt

Engraved allegorical frontis. by Daniel Chodowiecki. Woodcut illus. & printed music in the text, including several folding leaves of printed music in the pagination. xii, 568 pp.; 2 p.l., [569]-1287, [8] pp. Two vols. Large 4to, fine cont. marbled polished sheep (minor browning), flat spines richly gilt, red & green morocco lettering pieces on spines. Leipzig: Heirs of M.G. Weidemann & Reich, 1771-74. First edition, and a lovely set, of this encyclopedia of the fine arts, "one of the most widely consulted and frequently cited works on aesthetics of the German Enlightenment...Aimed at a popular market of art-loving amateurs (Leibhaber) who lacked specialist knowledge, it presented its philosophical and technical arguments in an accessible article format. The work underwent numerous reprints and new editions in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and, soon, after its initial appearance, many of the articles were translated into French and incorporated into the Supplément to the Encyclopédie."-Matthew Riley, "Civilizing the Savage: Johann Georg Sulzer and the 'Aesthetic Force' of Music," in Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 127 (2002), pp. 1-22. Sulzer (1720-79), was a leading member of Frederick the Great's rejuvenated Royal Academy of Sciences and read many papers on psychology, aesthetics, and other philosophical issues. He is notable in the history of science for his unwitting work in the development of the battery. Fine and handsome set.